Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel/Palestine

there's just far too much to say. we have five more days in jerusalem left. I'm tired, but well. I guess really all i can say right now is that this has all been extraordinarily valuable. I'm excited to come home in three weeks, but I will be sad to leave this region. There's so much to learn.

I want to come back to this city, meet more people.

ctrl + v = blogging fun

Right now is mad paper writing mode. We don't have a lot of free time before our travel component kicks up and we take off to turkey, syria, jordan, israel/palestine for a month.

Monday we wrap our Islamic thought and practice with our final/ turning in of research papers. I wrote mine on an Inheritance passage in the Qu'ran. It was assigned, not chosen, 'nuff said.

On tuesday, we get a break and head south to Upper Egypt to Aswan where we hope on a Nile Cruise and take it up to Luxor to check out the valley of the kings and all the gnarly stuff. It's a five day trip. Apparently our cruise is pretty luxurious, so i'm looking forward to relaxing a little inshall'ah.

Once we get back, we head to our week-long homestays and stay with an Egyptian family. Should be quite the experience, I'm pretty stoked for it.

Then, at the end of the month, we finish our Arabic class and turn in three papers for our peoples and cultures class. On the 1st, we head to Istanbul, insha'llah. Cool beans, y'all.


Some of my favorite things about Egypt:
Friendly people on the street staying up really really late (all the action happens like after 10), and using the little Arabic I know.
The cars weaving everywhere, coming up behind you and scaring the shit out of you
The hustle and bustle of Cairo – I’m going to be so bored when I get back to the U.S. – no stimulation
The cheap food – falafel (tamaya in Arabic), foul (kinda like refried beans), kosheri, shwarma, hummus, mcdonald’s delivery
The call to prayers from different mosques going on throughout the day – muslims have five daily prayers, they have a call to prayer (a guy sings over a speaker phone throughout the neighborhood) for each one
The fresh fruit (especially the mangos and guava) and their smell and the juices
Fayrouz – like a sparkling juice drink in apple pear and pineapple flavors
The smell of shisha (hookah) from men smoking it while drinking tea in a clear glass while playing dominoes or backgammon
The cats everywhere…sleeping on car hoods, crawling through restaurants, running around in the streets and on walls, beautiful cats everywhere

A few other Egypt tidbits: we live in the neighborhood of Agouza - which is sweet because it's quintessential Cairo. Ramadan finished today with the holiday of Eid, so I can finally start finding places that'll serve me lunch again.

I think Egyptian culture is really similar to Latin American culture – more laid back, people are always late, super warm and friendly, which is interesting because Islam demands some kinda rigorous practices. It’s kinda cool how an easy-going culture is still committed to a spiritually disciplined religion.

last week....

So last weekend we took a trip into the Sinai peninsula and did a bunch of stuff. Here's an e-mail I sent my mom about it:

Mt. Sinai was really cool. We left at 6:30pm from Cairo in a bus, and we got to the base of the mountain at around 2:30am. We then joined throngs of other tourists in our trek up, though many people took camels up instead. My friends Josh, Katelyn, and I kept a really fast clip and we’re able to easily reach the top before the 5am-ish sunrise. The stars out there were amazing, the best I’ve ever seen. The sunrise and the surrounding area was very pretty as well. Afterwards we went down to st catherine’s monastery at the base and saw the alleged burning bush (good to see its still alive 3500 years later).

Then we drove two hours to Dahab, on the red sea. It was pretty cool, we could see Saudi Arabia across the water. Dahab is very touristy, so we were able to wear shorts and I wore my earings. It was nice to hang out there on the water and go swimming, but the downside was that we didn’t have any access to running fresh water. All the showers in our rooms ran salt water. The red sea is incredibly salty as well, so that was a little uncomfortable. The second day at Dahab (Saturday) we went snorkeling, and saw a very gorgeous coral reef. I remembered some of the times in the keys see really pretty stuff, as well as checking out the empty bottoms of some of the south florida beaches. The only issue at dahab was we had to cross very shallow water on top of dead coral, which was very sharp and unstable, in order to get to some deeper waters.

My classes are going well. The Director teaches “Peoples and Cultures” and “Conflict and Change” which mostly consists of a variety of speakers and several readings. This past week we heard Paul Gordon-Chandler, an Episcopal priest who serves in Egypt and just wrote a book about Mahraz Mahouli, who refers to himself as a “Sufi-Muslim follower of Christ” and was exposed to Christianity through reading about Ghandi. Very interesting and exciting material. We also heard Bill Stewart, a high ranking diplomat from the U.S. Embassy, which was also a very valuable experience. The speakers come and visit us and usually speak to us in the Director’s flat. We’ll be especially focusing on those courses during the travel component in November. Islamic thought and practice is taught by a Muslim Egyptian woman who is a professor at the American University in Cairo, and our Arabic course is likewise though by AUC profs. They’re interesting, but we have a variety of papers.

This weekend we have nothing scheduled, which is a nice opportunity to be able to get some rest, do some homework, and hang out around Cairo. I cannot believe I’ve been hear as long as I was in France. It’s crazy.

blog from egypt? nahhhh

So a month later, I decided to actually blog a little about Egypt. I figure since I'm writing things in e-mails, I might as well copy and paste some of it and post it up here. Here's just a typical, boring ramble I e-mailed julianna about some of the mumkin deeper thoughts I'm thinking and talking about in Egypt. :

So one thing that’s our prof has talked about some and what I’ve discussed a lot with some of the guys here is the “blood on our hands” so to speak being “children of empire”. Basically, I’ve been trying to deal with the fact that I benefit so much from all these injustices (native Americans, blacks, white privilege, us foreign policy, etc). So, I have a responsibility to correct these injustices, to strive for reconciliation, redemption, and justice. Yet, what does that look like? How do I atone for the sins of those before me, of which I benefit? I don’t really know, I just know that I can’t make full amends. I do believe in progress that a little is better than nothing. I think of The Kite Runner as an illustration of this. something is better than nothing.

EDIT: MASSIVE KITE RUNNER SPOILERS DON't READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK

The protagonist admits that he doesn’t know if it’s a happy ending, that if Hassan’s son will ever fully recover. Likewise, it is too late to redeem Hassan, he’s gone, he’s dead. But what he can do is something small. There is no doubt that Hassan’s son is better off than he was being abused by the Taliban. There is no doubt there is a chance for happiness and healing, exemplified by the small, subtle smile at the scene at the end with the kite. I guess I’m just optimistic, but at least there’s something to be done, to be achieved, even if it isn’t enough. Something is better than nothing.

SPOILERS OVER

Theme #2: everything I learn makes me realize how stupid I am. I really know nothing. But how will I be able to ever gain knowledge if I’m satisfied with this? I accept my limitations for the most part, I am not brilliant, if I drastically change the world for the better it will only be through the grace of God or sheer luck, I am not really exceedingly exceptional. But I do have some ability, I do have some purpose, I am valuable, I am capable of something, which is better than nothing. Something is worth striving for. I can help a few people, I can make a little impact. I am 19. There is a little potential.

Theme #3: How do I differentiate myself as a Christian from a Muslim or a Jew? I have nothing substantial beyond my own subjective experience which causes me to have faith, faith based on hope and uncertainty (Hebrews 11:1). I will most likely never be able to accept Islam or Judaism as truth, at least absolute truth, based on my socialization, my own cultural conditioning. How can ever expect a Muslim or a Jew (or a Hindu or an atheist, etc) to ever accept Christianity as truth? To convert? It is doubtlessly non-rational, and debatably irrational for someone else who’s received the same religious socialization as me, the only difference being they were born in Iran, and I was born to a Western, Christian family. The only possibility is the miracle of the Holy Spirit. I was handed my religion, they were handed theirs. Only a miracle can change our religion that has become a part of this. I believe in an active God, one who is capable of miracles, and capable of using his unlikely servants to produce these miracles. Conversion and evangelism, as we know it, is exceedingly difficult in most circumstances, including America, though it is I would guess it is less common in countries with less civil liberty, less legal religious freedom. After all, this is a fallen world. I can only have faith and hope, based on uncertainty and irrationality. This doesn’t disturb me as much as you’d think. It used to. Looks like I’m mellow in my old age.

- I wrote all of that the day before our group was visited by Paul-Gordon Chandler, who wrote a book called "Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road". about mahruz malhouli, a sufi-muslim follower of christ. Amazing, check it out - a testimony of how God works beyond sociological, cultural, historical, economic, and political barriers. These miracles of conversion occur, and this is evidence of it - though some worry about the boundaries of faith issue, I'm less concern. But I'm crazy that way....like a compassionate, post-modern fox.

p.s. more practical blog will come letting you know some of the stuff we've been up to and the crazy fun nuances of life, like, say, david's desert diahrea (which one of the greatest experience of my life - i say this sincerely, no sarcasm, i know its hard to believe, but it was cool) or what about those crazy egyptians

much love all

France

It was sweet.

at least i blog more (and look better) than adam...

This'll just be a quickie:

Spring quarter was the academically hardest of my life, but it was definetly a valuable and positive experience. Two poli sci and two philosophy. I narrowed my poli sci major to the international affairs track, and am probably just going to minor in philosophy because I decided I wanted to mix in a little more sociology. I love philosophy, but I view more as a means than an end and more of a hobby or interest than a life pursuit.

Round two, I'm pretty excited to go to France this summer through SPU's poli sci department. I'm there from july 13 til august 13. Then, I leave august 28 to study abroad in the Middle East for fall semester. I'm going through the CCCU so it'll be a mix of 15 or so students from christian colleges and universities in north america. We'll be living in Cairo, but we'll take several trips to other countries like syria, israel, jordan, lebanon, and turkey. I'm pumped but a little apprehensive.

Right now I'm in sun river, oregon with my family sans Sara staying at my aunt's vacation house. It's pretty rad resort town in the woods by mt bachelor and on the Deschutes river. We've just been doing the usual sort of vacation things- a lil hiking, a lil mountain biking, a lil tennis, a lil swimming. It's rad. In a couple days, I'll be shooting up to Gerbs' cabin via seattle and surrey. then from there, i swing through seattle and pick up the lovely julianna and we head to walnut creek, CA to stay with my parents. Sick beans.

In the paraphrased words of Ron Burgundy, "I know its boring, but...it's my life"

p.s. adam sucks

a moment with david's privileged life

It is almost 2:30 AM, I just destroyed a T-Bell grilled 'stuft' burrito, and I'm reading (and enjoying) Friedrich Nietzsche in my dormroom while listening to Explosions in the Sky. This is a college moment to remember. I'd thought I'd share this simple, silent happiness with you.

This blog is long and boring

So for Spring Break, I took the NAFTA tour, hitting up Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. I swung up to Canada for a weekend to see a couple good-looking guys and Michelle Heimowski (who's not a very good-looking guy, but a very pretty girl). From there, I flew to my parents' near the Bay via Sea-Tac where I stayed for a day. After that, I was off to Juarez, Mexico with my parents to see my sister Katia and bro-in-law Micah - who is teaching some classes at Mexican seminary as part of year-long internship in order to complete is tenure at Calvin Seminary. He graduates in May, and then they're off to either Cal-Berkley, Columbia in New York, Yale, Emory in the ATL, or University of Michigan for at least two years as my sister attends grad school to get a Master's in Public Health. She also applied to the U-Dub, U of Washington located 10-15 minutes away from me, but unfortunately was rejected because of a lack of experience in the field of public health. This was disappointing because I'm pretty sure she would've come up here, and it would've been nice to have an incredibly good vegetarian cook nearby. Oh, and I love my sister, blah blah blah. But it's mostly about the food.

Anyways, while it was great to see the fam and it was really fun, its always fairly challenging spiritually for me to spend a significant amount of time around family, particularly my parents. This stems from my inclination to rebel against the way in which I was immersed and saturated in Christianity during my childhood and adolesence, which was always one of the biggest sources for any type of skepticism or rebellion against my Christian faith. So, being around my parents remind me of this and all the Christianese that gets tossed around in pre-dinner prayers and the like kinda bothers me.

In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that if governments were to intervene and prevent parents from teaching religion to their children and instead let them decide when they were older teenagers, then this would result in a quick end to theism. I think there's a lot of rational soundness to that argument. If I didn't believe in the Holy Spirit and his/her active work on earth (which I do, often earnestly and whole-heartedly), I'd buy this argument in a heartbeat.

So I've been on a little bit of one my regular skeptical kicks, doubting things and whatnot, mainly ignited simply by being around my parents. (My parents are awesome by the way- I know this is a cliche, but in getting older and being away from them a lot more, i even like hanging out with them for short periods of time once in awhile. Crazy.) One of the things I've been playing with and trying to figure out where I stand on is the idea of the infallibility of the Bible, which is kinda a pretty fundamental Christian truth. Lately, I've been less confident in this notion -quite simply, because there's so much humanity involved: Human writers, human readers, humans canonizing and deciding what IS scripture, human historians, human scholars, human translators. There's a lot of context that's involved and makes me question how applicable all this is to us. It leaves a lot of doubt in my mind of how much and how well the present-day Christian church truly understands about..um..well..everything. I have faith that the most important and essential doctrines have been preserved, but other 'filler' questions I'm not completely sold on. What I have been leaning towards, however, is using the examples and teachings set by Jesus as a lens through which to view the rest of Scripture. This has a couple problems (like it assumes the accuracy and infallibility of the Gospels - written decades after Jesus' life), but its the option I like the best.

Anyways, I'm getting kinda tired and bored and this is long, but I have some more thoughts I want to run with related to this.

Go Falcons

The good news: I'm alive.

The bad news: there's nothing to blog about.

Just some quick notes:

I separated my shoulder hitting that bastard to the right.

I listen to rap once in awhile.

My girlfriend plays the harp. 'Nuff said.

The Seattle U Red Hawks suck......go partake in the eucharist, you dirty catholics

We play SU today at SPU's Royal Brougham Pavilion, and I'm honestly considering breaking up with Julianna because she refuses to go. It's our cross-town rival, they crushed us at their place earlier in the year which ended with a half-court shoving match, their fans are into beastiality and incest, it's our homecoming - how do you not get up for this game? Ugh...girls...

Thai food can give you a hangover.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are my homies.

Immanual Kant's hott too.

I kinda like school....shhhhhhh

I'm on the greatest Madden losing streak (vs. a human) ever. It's not like I'm being outplayed, I've just been extraordinarily unlucky. Randomly impossibily interceptions, horribly timed fumbles, crucial defensive collapses at big moments....its uncanny.

When I lose in Madden, I'm usually really pissed off and grumpy for like an hour.

I gave up reading and homework months ago.

I think I'm wagering on the Super Bowl because that's the only way I'll really care who wins.

Is it rascist to root for the Bears because Lovie Smith looks more black than Tony Dungy? I wish one of them was white, I love cheering against white people. I say equal opportunity, you say reverse discrimination.

God is really faithful.

SU's center is one of the ugliest people I've ever seen. He looks like a shaved big foot with a head the size of tennis ball.

1 hour 'til game time. I'm ready to explode. Maroon>>>>>>Red; Falcon>>>>>>Hawk; protestant school>>>>>> catholic school

Guaran'Sheed

Hey, whats up, I'm blogging right now. You know what that means - yep, midterms and papers. Time to spend hours procrastinating setting up my fantasy football lineup, looking for a way to trade for Rasheed Wallace in my NBA league, checking out which bands are coming to Seattle in February, and, of course, to blog.

So I've been at SPU for over a month, and it's been a great start to sophmore year. First off, the new freshmen on my floor are legit - just a bunch of really fun, enthusiastic cats. Plus, it's kinda funny for me to pretend I'm way older than them (because it feels that way with an extra year of college experience under my belt) when half of them are actually older than me. A couple of the kiddies turned 19 a little bit ago leading me to reminisce about all the great times I had back in the day when I was 19 - which I'll turn in a month and half. What can I say? I'm just so unbelievably mature and good looking for my age. Plus, I have a great singing voice.

I'm finding being a sophmore is heckuva lot busier than being a freshman, but I think its mainly because I'm getting more involved. I'm writing an opinions column for our weekly student newspaper, The Falcon (which I may or may not post here on occasion, look below for one or two); tutoring some elementary school kids in an underprivileged, predominantly african-american neighborhood; incorrectly using semi-colons; leading a small group of freshmen with my ex-roommate Brennan; getting involved with some of the groups and clubs around campus like Young Democrats; and playing intramural football (which is amazing) and volleyball (which is 'aight).

On the spiritual side of things, God is doing something special on our floor. It's exciting. I've been hearing so many stories of people just really changing over the summer and just getting really excited to grow and mature in relationships with eachother toward God. It's hard to explain, but there's just a different feeling to the floor this year. Almost everyone's in a small group, almost everyone shows up for floor worship in our balcony lounge, and just a ton of awesome events are being organized. Last year was all swell and good, but there's something pretty awesome here as we all begin to grow together. Any pray for this to continue up here on Sixth West would be legit.

Anyways, back to work. I love you all, even James.
-Thirty Foot Cliff

Jesus Didn't Advocate Wealth

Note: this is one of the articles I've written for our student newspaper at SPU, the Falcon. I'll prolly post one here from time to time.

Prosperity theology is a term given to the controversial doctrine that states that one’s prosperity and success, especially financially, is a result of God’s favor. This favor is often thought to be a reward for spiritual merit or prayer.
Prosperity theology is a growing issue in the North American church, with its roots found in the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. The debate has grown to such proportions that Time Magazine featured it on its cover in recent weeks, begging the questions “Does God Want Us to be Rich?”
In a poll showcased by Time’s article, 31 percent of Christians surveyed agreed that “if you give away your money to God, he will bless you with more money”. Likewise, the article highlighted several mega churches, who are strong advocates of prosperity theology, including the largest church in America: Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen. Osteen is also author of Your Best Life Now, a book premised on the worldly rewards God will grant us in this life.
One such Seattle-area church is The City Church, who, according to its website, averages over 4000 attendees at its three campuses in Kirkland, Belltown, and Issaquah. The City Church recently ran its annual conference, entitled “Prosperity with a Purpose”.
According to The City Church’s website, this year’s conference has the theme “Prosperity with Integrity” which “will be a life changing key to biblical financial success”.
Now, the last thing I want to do is question the faith of Joel Osteen or the legitimacy of any of these churches.
However, I disagree with their beliefs regarding earthly rewards granted by God, and I think Scripture supports me. While the Time article claims that scripture presents conflicting passages on the issue, I have found the Bible’s message on the issue to be very clear to me. Many are the passages promising persecution and suffering for the followers of Jesus, yet who would want to attend to church preaching that message? It's much more comforting to attend to hear the message of prosperity.
The passages those in the prosperity theology camp use to support their philosophy rely on an equivocation on terms such as wealth, blessing, abundance, and gifts, like the one found in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Now, from a worldly point of view, this passage could be construed as saying Jesus provides us with material and financial success and prosperity. But He’s not talking about that kind of abundance. The rewards that God gives aren’t the kind of success that our American culture values. An abundant or blessed life does not mean a financially prosperous one. The riches Jesus offers are not monetary ones.
One of the reasons that prosperity theology’s dogma fires me up is its similarities to social Darwinism. Social Darwinism applies Darwin’s idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to social stratification. In other words, according to social Darwinism, the ‘fittest’ and most worthy of society will be able to move up the social ladder and thrive in society, while the losers become the losers of society.
Prosperity theology is dangerously close to this theory. The concept of God’s favor suggests that those who have not been blessed with prosperity are bad Christians or in someway undeserving of God’s rewards. This is heresy.
There are millions of starving Christians around the globe who are much more ‘deserving’ of God’s favor than I am, yet I am privileged and ‘blessed’ in ways and quantities that are unimaginable to some of these people.
I believe in a totally depraved, fallen world. In fact, I believe that the world is so depraved, that I, through my own power and by myself, can do anything that is purely good and righteous. Instead, I believe that I am totally reliant on the Spirit to work through me to accomplish anything that is considering completely sinless and good.
Therefore, I believe that I deserve no rewards or prosperity from God. Any blessings I receive—worldly and carnal, or otherwise—are not because of anything I have done. Instead, it is solely from God’s pure grace.

Seattle

It's good to be here, really good.

Love,
David

P.S. more to come later

rockin' the suburbs

So I'm still in norcal for ten days before driving old lady Ranger to seattle to start kicking it at SeaPac U. I'm stoked - there are so many things that I'm looking forward to its crazy. Last weekend I drove the five-six hours down to LA to do a lil chillin' and illin' (i'm such a cracker) with my sister Sara who is a month into law school at USC. Law school is crazy, absolutely ridiculous amount of work. Is it in my future? Vegas has the odds at 2 to 1. If not law school, there'll almost certainly be grad school in my future. Either way, I'll be attending a div 1 school with a good football team. I got my priorities straight.

Walnut Creek (aka Dub C) is cool, though I technically live in Concord. I have fun though - there's so many slang terms for the area. Its also known as East Bay (eBay) or Contra Costa County (3C).

I like this area because I sorta feel like I'm in a city, but then I can also feel like I'm a very pretty, nice open area. I'm in the ultimate suburbia.

I know a couple people who live in the area from SPU but I'm not really good friends with them yet. Two of my friends have come and visited me here, which was fun, but otherwise its been mega low key. I'm sick of typing.

Payce.

They're just thoughts, so go ahead and speak

So I've kinda been working through and thinking about a blog for most of this summer that I thought would be finished a long time ago. It'll come out some day, but there's just too many thoughts in there and I'm sick of processing and analyzing my life. Instead, I'm trying to go against my basic nature in order to avoid thinking too much. I'm trying to take some time to give my mind a break and to just live - without questing towards meaning, perspective, and value.

In short, I'm trying to take a break from idealism to spend a little time as a realist.

Of course, as I imagine the rest of this blog will show, I'm not doing a very good job.

As many of you know, about 11 months ago I committed to eating no animals except for most seafood. About five months ago, I began eating chickens and turkeys. Last night, as I learned more about the intelligence of chickens, I recommitted myself to avoid eating all animals excluding most seafood (I won't eat larger, predatorial fish such as swordfish primarily for environmental reasons). Now, I didn't bring this up to stir up an old debate (as fun as that would be), but instead to bring up a point that almost directly contradicts what I wrote in the first paragraph.

I'm a fish-eating pseudo vegetarian for several reasons: my peronal health, animal rights, and for environmental and social justice.

For example, my personal ethical convictions lead me to believe that an organism that has sufficient cognitive abilities is sentient. (In otherwords, I believe that since chickens are intelligent enough to develop object permanence and complex social heirarchies then they are conscious and aware of their own existence.) Now, if an organism is sentient, then it feels pain and can suffer. My convictions then lead me to believe that it is immoral to inflict suffering on a sentient being unless there is a greater moral reason for doing so. Satisfying my taste for chicken is not a greater moral reason, so therefore, I don't eat chickens.

Likewise as another example, I also recently learned that animal agriculture contributes to global warming. Basically, turning factory farmed animals into food is responsible for 17% of America's fossil fuel emission. The average vegan diet generates at least 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions anually than does the average American diet. In comparison, driving a hybrid car generates just more than 1 ton less than a "regular" car per year.

Now, it would be so easy for me to ignore this knowledge and my own personal convictions regarding moral value and the environment (not to mention all the other examples and reasons you should ask me abou) and to go on eating chickens. In fact, it WAS so easy to for me to eat chicken and turkey the past 5 or so months.

And here's my point- there are a million other things that I am ethically convicted about that I don't follow through on. There are a million other things that I'm ignorant about that I purposely don't try to learn about because I don't want to be morally convicted on the issue and I don't want to sacrifice my money and my concern. It would be so easy for me to go through life just thinking and talking without acting. It would be easy to pursue a career with a nice income to provide security for my family and material items for my pleasure. It would be even easier to go through life without ever really thinking about what really matters and instead to do whats best for my family, friends, and myself. But I don't think that's me; I don't think that's why we exist. Happiness isn't the point, and ignorance isn't bliss.

Who the hell decided tulips were so great anyways?

Popularly known as the "L" in "TULIP", limited atonement is an idea that's tough for me to swallow. If God is all-powerful, then God has the power to atone for the sins of all humanity. If God is all-loving, then God would want to save his beloved from the distance of hell. If there is limited atonement, then God can't be all-loving or all-powerful. That is the logic I can't get past. Thus, I constantly find myself floating back to the idea of universalism - an idea I've been indulging in from time to time since I was little. Thinking about God's love and power being so powerful to save everyone(screw justice), regardless of faith or works (inclusively), makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Too bad feeling warm and fuzzy isn't the point of religion - there's also legitimatizing social arrangements, promoting social unity, providing meaning and encouraging a sense of belonging (thanks sociology of religion). But seriously, that's another issue my thought train has been running into - religion, and specifically Christianity, makes a lot of sense through a perspective of functionalism. It seems so logical that religion exists to complete the functions listed above. I also know people are socialized into their faith - the whole "parents' faith" shabang. Well, maybe not parents' faith, it could be grand parents' faith. Or great grandparents faith. Or great great grandparent's faith, or which ever ascentor converted first. In any case, most Christians are introduced to their religion through their parents, sunday school teacher, or maybe school - right along with all the social norms and whatnot that we are socialized with; I was taught to be a good Christian like I was taught to be a good American.

Throw in some other ideas that give me pause (the issue of Lost in Translation, except instead of Bill Murray in Japan, its the Bible in the past two millenias, the neurology of a Christian spiritual experience isn't different from the neurology of a Buddhist spiritual experience ect, ect) and we have some bonafide doubt and searching.

I was reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (*coughsexist*) awhile back, and I came across a passage (which I'm too lazy to look up) that said something about hearing what the Bible said about issues instead of using the pieces of the Bible to support previously held social and political beliefs. I then realized that I'm more confident in my social, political, and ethical convictions than in my spiritual and religious convictions, which is a fun little paradox, since my social, political and ethical convictions are (I like to think) derived from my religion.

I'd like to continue this conversation, but I have class tomorrow and am going to bed, so I'll leave with this thought:
I feel as I grow into the academic life that lays ahead for me, I'm like Jack and Locke in Lost, I feel a conflict looming between faith and learning. It's not as though I believe that the Bible necessarily conflicts with science (unless you take it literally) its more like the world makes a lot more sense to me through an academic or scientific perspective.

Running Thoughts

Sorry I haven't blogged lately, I've been too busy procrastinating and being bored.

I got back from Easter in Walnut Creek the other day. It was great -saw the whole family. We went to Santa Cruz for my sister's birthday. It's a great, kinda shady place. It's like if you took Santa Monica, moved it up the coast a couple hundred miles, made it less famous and glamorous, and added even more stoners and groups of Mexican high schoolers walking around doing nothing. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Walnut Creek was very noticeably green - and I'm a northwest kid. It reminded me of Scotland with its rolling green hills and In'n'Out Burgers. I miss Scotland.

I lost my cell phone in SFO which sucks. And then my iPod battery ran out on the way back so I couldn't watch the Office even though my mom made sure we could still make the plane in case the plane departed two hours early. So, I'm pretty much saying I'm the most unfortunate person alive; no one has it touher than me. The Office is good, though.

Spring quarter has been alright. My classes are decently interesting and fairly challenging, so its been 'aight. Y'all.

Today, Brennan created a player for his Portland Trailblazers franchise on NBA 2k6 named Jesus Christ. This long-haired, fully bearded white guy went 3 for 10 while I watched. Clearly, Jesus was cold. Brennan spent an hour practicing with Jesus trying to build up his skill and then forgot to save. Poetic justice, divine punishment, or Brennan is sorta a dumbass? You decide.

This is what happens on Wednesday nights when Lost isn't on. Lost is usually good, though.

Oo, something sorta interesting: two weeks ago, I caught an elbow to the mouth in a pickup basketball game. My front tooth which experienced considerable trauma from a kneeboard ten years ago was dislodged pretty bad, so it turns out I'm going to have to an oral sugeon and get a tooth transplant. The good news is I'll probably get to wear a Brendan Morrison type tooth flipper inbetween extraction and implantment operations. Plus, my new dentist looks like Mr. Rogers and wears lots of bow ties, except his right hand is half gone which makes him even cooler.

Later.

Update

Finals went well and we won a thriller monday night culminating in the student section rushing the court jumping up and down with all the players. Great game, on to the Elite Eight in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Finals, March Madness, and Slamming James for No Reason Except Jealousy

So this upcoming week is finals week here at SPU. I've got a bio and politics final on monday, and a take home final due tuesday for my ucor. This past week I was also accepted into University Scholars, which is the honors program. This means a couple things - first, I'll probably start blogging more because I'll have a lot more reading and papers to write so I'll need to procrastinate and distract myself more. Second, my U-Core and Biology classes I unfortunately took this quarter are now almost worthless, but I won't have to waste future time on common and exploratory curriculum. Instead, I can work towards the honors curriculum and my (probable) majors of political science and philosophy and, hopefully if I have room, a minor of sociology, but that may be far too ambitious.

Enough with my life, lets move on to something interesting. Our Seattle Pacific men's basketball team is in the midst of a great season, and, as an Orangemen (6th West Ashton tradition), I have a front row view. As GNAC (Great Northwest Athletic Conference, "gee-nack") champions and the top seed in the West, SPU was awarded host of the men's west regional. This is the third time its happened in the past 41 years. Anyways, the Big Dance works a little differently in Division II basketball than in Division I. In DII, there 8 regions instead of four, and after winning your region you advance to some centrally located host city to play in the Elite Eight, instead of the Final Four. Well after victories over Central Washington and Cal State Bakersfield last night and tonight repectively, we're on to the sweet sixteen, the regional championship, against our archrival Western Washington at Seattle Pacific's Royal Broughm Pavillion, and I am pee-my-pants excited.

Action shot of the Orangmen at work (from left) Sam Delay driving the bus to V-town, Geoff "Jersey" Jacobs basking in the ecstasy of the three, Jake "Peer Advisor" Buter knew it all along, and David "Slutbag" Van Hofwegen peeing his pants for Dustin Bremerman's three ball

Dustin Bremerman makes me weak in the knees. Not only does the silky-smooth guard sort of look like an attractive James Harskamp, he's money from trey-land. Though not as flashy as GNAC player of the year and point guard Tony Binelli or as dominating as center "GNAC Shaq" Robbie Will, Dustin effortlessly throws up 20 point performances. Plus, his middle name's Tyrel - ya know, like the White Rock star who set the RCMP tourney scoring record because James was guarding him.

That's all kiddies, I'm back to the books and looking forward to an intense Monday night.

Edit: James likes girls.....and he plays World of Warcraft.

Thugged out

So I'm just innocently travelling the harsh streets of downtown Seattle - Ya know, finding homes for the homeless, families for the orphans, and food for the hungry - the usual Tuesday night for me.

Unfortunately, an evil neo-Nazi drug dealing Satan worshiping corporate thug was out on the s ame street stealing these helpless people to make money and somehow increase global poverty through torturing them. I was just like, "Dude, you can't do that."

And he was just like, "What?" and then he shot my in the face - thus, the bloody brow. Then, I ate some spinach and convinced him to convert to Christianity through non-violent protest. Happy day.

...and Andrew thinks I'm anti-Semitic

A couple things: if you're looking to add something to your reads, check out My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok - a powerful novel about the battle of religion, family and tradition intertwined against inner impulses, gifts, and expression - emotional and profound. It's one of those stories that just gets you, ya know? impacts you in ways only really good stories can. This one was special as well because I think most people who grow up in religious families can relate Asher in some way.

Lost is seriously scaring me - I feel like the creators are on the verge of losing control. Such a brilliant show with so much potential, and there's a very good chance it'll all go down the tube. I blame the Bush Administration.

Third, expect a long post about Alexis de Tocqueville and my future soon. Also, I'll finally get on getting some pictures out on here.

Pax,
DMV